Wordless Wednesday ~ Sneak Peek

 

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I Need Some Bright And Happy

 Hello Quilty Friends!  After months of working with not so loved fabrics, it's time to recharge my quilty soul.  Nothing makes this gals heart go pitter pat like a bright and happy quilt.  Oh, I have a ton of ideas for new quilts but I also have a ton of quilt tops needing to be quilted.  So I grabbed the one on the top of the stack.

This one was made back in 2014 and is called Back Door Beauty. It took some digging on my blog to find the start date and quilt details.  If you're looking for a good coffee spewing chuckle this morning, you really should hop over to this link and read my original post about how I acquired this fabric.  

The fabric line used for the applique is a Moda line called Miss Kate by Bonnie and Camille.  The applique is fusible raw edge.   This fairly small quilt barely used half of a layer cake.  Hopefully I can find the rest of the layer cake to use in the binding.

As with most of my UFO quilt tops, this one became a UFO because I couldn't decide on a quilting plan.  Today is no different.  She's loaded and ready to be quilted and I'm drawing a blank.  Sounds like  a good reason to wandering around Pinterest and Google and maybe fall down a rabbit hole or two.

Until next time...

I hope you find time to stitch up something sweet!

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New Ironing Station Cover

 It's time to recover the ironing station in my studio.  There's absolutely nothing wrong with the cover other than I'm tired of looking at it. Over the last year or so I would occasionally lay another piece of fabric over it but would not staple it in place. 

Since it's still in good shape and only needs to be washed to remove the starch I decided to carefully remove the staples.

And then this happened at about staple #10.

Plan B...rip the darn thing off the board, if it survives I'll wash it.  If it doesn't, so be it.  Yes I'm pouting and stomping like a two year old.  We'll just chalk it up to old lady hormones.

As I took my pain out on the fabric I exposed more layers of fabric I didn't know existed.

It's hard telling how many are actually on here.  Mr. Podunk and I made this 10 yrs ago.  Since then it has been covered too many times to count.  I also know there's at least one more layer of aluminum foil besides the one you see here. The white fabric I'm holding is glued to the foil.

To help stabilize the foil and keep me from tearing it when I turn this board over I add painters tape to the edge.  One more layer for me to forget when I change this cover the next time. 

Now that it's flipped right sides up I can remove the offending fabric.  My goodness will you look how stiff it is from starch.

I auditioned several different fabrics before deciding I like this print the best, it's a Bonnie and Camille fabric.  My inside quilty gal started screaming "Don't use it for an ironing board cover!"  But the gal who's finger is still hurting is the boss today.  It's just fabric and it makes me happy.  

The fabric was quickly clamped in place, I need to work fast before quilty gal starts screaming again.

Quilty Gal has some very valid points about this fabric but I really don't want to rehash them for hours on end.  I just want to get this done and return to sewing. 

Remember when you were a kid and your mom warned you of making decisions when you are upset.  This is one of those moments she was talking about.  It would have been much easier to trim the fabric on the cutting table before adding it to the ironing board.  Well here I am, feeling a little more aggravated.  I was ready to remove the new fabric and cut it at the cutting table when Lea Anne MacGyver pops in and says "RIP IT".   I love that MacGyver, she's a handy gal to have around when I make bad decisions.  So with a quick snip and a couple of yanks on the fabric.....

....we have a perfectly trimmed fabric.  TADA!

The excess fabric on the top couldn't be ripped but it didn't take long to use a pair of scissors to remove it.

The first edge is always the easiest edge to staple into place.

The rest of them are a little harder.  Pulling the fabric snug while stapling is quite the chore.  It's only a chore because this stapler requires a lot of hand strength.  Do they make a girl stapler?  You know something a little easier to use?  Maybe in red or pink?  I see an Amazon shopping trip in my near future. 

Now I've seen quilters get all in a fuss over tacking down the corners.  Seriously?  This isn't a Christmas gift.  It's an ironing board.  Once flipped right side up no one will know that it's not perfect.

Keeping it simple...I grab the point of the corner and tug it snug.

Bam, Bam, bam and we have one corner done.  As easy as pie!  No fuss, no muss! 

 I love the new look of my ironing station.  Light and airy.

  

I loved it so much I decided to recover my smaller ironing boards.  The one on top is used when making turned edge applique.  The pink one rarely gets used but it comes in handy when I'm too lazy to get up out of my chair and walk around the table to press something.  This makes me so happy!  I'm recharged and ready to get back to sewing!  Whoohoo!

My word of the year MOOVE.  Getting things done, moving them along or moving me.  It basically means activity for me and my projects.  Today's MOOVE was recovering the ironing table that was driving me nuts.

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Vintage Holiday Charm Quilt and Christmas Cleanup

Back in September of this year my 7 yr. old granddaughter came to stay with us for a couple of weeks.  She's full spunk and is quite the creative little gal.  So when she showed an interest in learning to sew I thought a simple charm quilt would be the perfect project.  I was wrong and I ended up finishing up this quilt with the Vintage Holiday charm packs she chose from my stash.  

I'm not a big fan of themed or novelty prints.  But this line of Christmas fabrics was simple and really doesn't scream novelty print.  Since it's not screaming Christmas it was easy to add some non Christmas prints to the mix.

The border print is also a Bonnie and Camille fabric from the line called Smitten.  I love the look of the low volume border and was tempted to feather quilt it to death.  

 Common sense kicked in and I decided to do the bare minimum quilting design to keep it a quick and easy quilt.  Simple straight lines was the perfect addition to make this a cozy, soft and cuddly quilt.  This is probably the quickest I've ever quilted a quilt of this size.  About 2 hours of quilting on my domestic machine and she was ready to bind.

The backing was made from 2 fabrics.  The red is a print from Bonnie and Camille's Handmade line of fabric.  The white with birds and the binding are both Lakehouse Drygoods fabric.  You all knew I would find a way to add Lakehouse to my quilt.  HAHA!

To finish it off I added a simple label with another Bonnie and Camille aqua gingham print.  On the label is the story of how my granddaughter started this and I finished it for her.  My hopes is that it will be something she will cherish the rest of her life.

For now it's time to store it away with all the other Christmas quits.  This big stack of quilts and pillows need to be put back in storage for a few months.

I pulled out the pillow forms and folded everything with the backing side out.  Later in the year when I'm decorating for the patriotic holidays I'll pull these out of storage and refold the to help keep them as healthy as possible.

Storing with the backing side out protects the pretty side from light, dust or stains.  If these were going into my hope chest I would put them in pillow cases or wrap them in sheets.  But these will go into large clear plastic totes in my office.  Then I will cover the totes with a sheet to protect them from the sunlight.  Folding them with the label showing makes it easier to find one if I need it for marketing or trunk shows.

Since we're on the topic of quilt storage and hope chest I thought I would share a picture of my girl.  She often sleeps with her head under the hope chest.  Not sure why she crams herself into this small space like this but I find hilarious and cute.

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Unfinished business in 2015

Good Monday Morning sweet quilty friends!  While most of you are planning for the the new year ahead I'm still stuck in 2015.  This isn't a complaint, just stating a fact.   The past week I've been focusing on cleaning up the studio and completing my Strawberry Lemonade quilt.  Well the quilt top is complete, I'll share it with you later in the week when the lighting is better for full quilt top photo's.  And the studio....umm...not quite ready to keep it real by baring it all.  So let's just change the subject and talk about what was found while sorting though the pile of  "Needs to be Quilted".  Not only does this lovely little gal need to be quilted but it also needs the applique sewn down....How did that happen?

It shouldn't take long to get the raw edge petals sewn into place using invisible thread.  One of the tricks to quick machine applique is pre planning your stitching route.  What does that mean?  Well you want  continuous sewing without cutting the thread.  On more complex blocks you might have more than one start and stop.  Here's my plan for each block.  Starting at the red dot, stitch down the side of two petals until I reach the center of the block, then pivot and go up the next set of petals.  Just keep following the arrows until I come back to my red dot.

One row is complete.  Hopefully this can done in a day or two.  New projects and patterns are already in the works for this year, lots of exciting fun stuff planned for the year ahead, whenever I finish playing around in 2015.   Staying focused is so hard!  

Well here's the entire nameless quilt.  Hopefully by the time the applique is finished there will be a name, any suggestions?

Linking up with these wonderful bloggers, hop on over and join the fun!

Judy@PatchworkTimes for Design wall Monday

and

Beth@CookingUpQuilts for Main Crush Monday

and

Em@Em'sScrapBag for Moving it Forward Monday

and 

Connie@FreeMotionBytheRiver for Linky Tuesday

and

Heather@QuiltStory for Fabric Tuesday

and

Alyce@BlossomHeartQuilts for Sew Cute Tuesday

and

Lorna@SewFreshQuilt for Let's Be Social

and

Nudge@AQuiltingReadersGarden

~  Lea Anne ~

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Enough for one more...

After making a lap quilt and a table topper, there's enough scraps left for one more small project from the Moda L'Amour charm pack.  Here's a sneak peak at the last little cutie.    Do you keep making projects until all the scraps are gone from the original project or do stash them away?  This is a first for me.  Maybe I should do this more often.   It's a great way to keep those scrap bins under control.

The Miss Kate quilt is coming along.  After two cups of coffee, an eye crossing quilt staring session and making a huge mess pulling fabrics for a border, I think this quilt will be fine without a border but with a colorful binding.  Now comes the hard part of stitching down all the applique. Sounds like an all day job and a lot of coffee!  

Guess what?  there's scraps...I see another Miss Kate project in the near future.

The designing wheels are already turning.  Maybe this applique can wait.

~ Lea Anne ~

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